• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.77-84
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• 2023

Welding and cutting, which are representative tasks in handling firearms at industrial sites, are the basis for production and maintenance processes across all industries. They are also essential in the root industry. Specifically, they are widely used in the manufacturing industry, including equipment industries such as shipbuilding, automobiles, and chemicals, and subsequent maintenance work and general facility repair. However, such hot work carries a high fire risk owing to sparks scattering and inadequate management, resulting in a high occurrence of accidents. In response, the government and relevant organizations have recently revised the Occupational Safety and Health Act to prevent accidents during hot work. These revisions impose more stringent regulations than before, which are expected to help prevent actual fire accidents. However, whether the fire observer system, which is the core element of the revision, would be practically applied and maintained is unclear. Therefore, this study compared the fire observer system in the revised Occupational Safety and Health Act with those in the laws and systems of developed countries, conducted interviews with safety and health experts to assess the suitability of the new system for fire observer operations, and improvement plans were derived accordingly. Therefore, the laws and systems of developed countries grant more authority to fire observers compared with those of Korea. Moreover, professional training in handling emergency is required. Interviews with safety and health experts revealed that regardless of company size, the same operating standards were applied, and standards for deploying fire observers in various locations were unclear. Furthermore, there was a lack of professional education and training, and the role and authority of fire observers were limited. These findings revealed a problem in this sector. The results of this study are expected to serve as basic data for establishing a practical system for placing fire observers and supplementing laws, guidelines, and systems for preventing fire accidents.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.314-319
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• 2005

Nowadays, there so many fire accidents happened in subways and tunnels, buildings. In this paper, the behaviors of subway damaged by fire, the fire protection techniques for evaluating subway structures stability are presented. To protect the tunnel by fire, flame detector method is resonable.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.9-21
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• 2024

Static-electricity-induced fires and explosions persistently occur every year, averaging approximately 80 and 20 cases annually according to fire statistics provided by the National Fire Agency and industrial accident statistics provided by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, respectively. Despite the relatively low probabilities of these accidents, their potential risks are high. Consequently, effective risk assessment methodologies and accident investigation strategies are essential for efficiently managing static-electricity hazards in fire- and explosion-prone areas. Accordingly, this study aimed to identify the causal variables essential for accident investigations, thereby facilitating risk assessments and the implementation of effective recurrence prevention measures to mitigate static-electricity hazards in fire-and explosion-prone regions. To this end, industrial accident statistics recorded over the past decade (2012 to 2021) by the Ministry of Employment and Labor were analyzed to identify major fire and explosion incidents and related industrial accidents wherein static electricity was identified as a potential ignition source. Subsequently, relevant investigation reports (63 cases) were thoroughly analyzed. Based on the results of this analysis, existing electrostatic fire and explosion risk assessment techniques were refined and augmented. Moreover, factors essential for investigating electrostatic fire and explosion disasters were delineated, and the primary causal variables necessary for effective risk assessments and scientific investigations were derived.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.23-30
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• 2016

This study analyzed the characteristics of chemical accidents, including the accidents occurring each year according to status, type of accident, accident cause for chemical substance transporting accidents. The major aim of this study was to provide information on the chemical accidents that occurred involving chemical substance transporting accidents from 2013 to July - 2016. The total incidence of chemical transporting accidents was 77 cases; 74 cases occurred by the spill & leakage type. The main cause of the accidents analyzed was traffic accidents (41 cases). Forty-six accidents were related to hazardous chemical substances. Among the 46 hazardous chemical substances involved in transporting chemical accidents, 46% of the accident substances were hydrogen chloride. For the prevention and response to accidents occurring during the transportation of chemicals, it is necessary to complement the precautions for chemical accidents caused by transportation accidents and chemical spills and leaks of chemicals. In addition, when the chemical transport of an accident occurs, it is necessary to apply a chemical transport safety system for chemical transfer.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.80-86
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• 2015

This study analyzed recent cases of ship fires explosions and investigated their problems and coping plans. Through analysis on the statistical figures, it was found that our nation's situations of maritime accidents by kind during the period of 2009~2013 showed the ratios of ship accidents caused by fires explosions was the highest in 2012 with 7.58% (55 cases) followed by year 2009 with 3.39% (34 cases), year 2010 with 3.39% (25 cases), year 2011 with 6.03% (57 cases) and year 2013 with 6.74% (43 cases), which indicates a steady increase in the number of ship accidents. Majority of reasons for ship fires explosions were lack of safety awareness. Since those accidents happen on the sea, fires, once they happen, tend to get serious due to absence of on board & nearby fire extinguishing facilities, public fire service's uneasy access to them and great influences of natural factors such as wind and etc. Ship fires explosions are special cases unlike what happens to general edifices. So, their coping plans should focus on preventive measures since the damages those cases bring about can be detrimental. For this reason, it's necessary to research precise evacuation plans, develop ship structure & materials reinforcing fire resistance to secure more time for evacuation and enhance people's safety awareness by implementing thorough safety training.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.457-469
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to present the direction of improvement of safety management by reviewing the current status of forest fire accidents that are becoming larger throughout the year and the problems of the response system. Method: Domestic and foreign literature survey and statistics of recent forest fire accidents by Statistics Korea investigated and analyzed the cause, number of damage, and suggested ways to improve forest fire safety management through domestic and foreign forest fire response systems. Result: Through the analysis of the causes of recent wildfires and overseas response cases, measures to improve the safety management of wildfires in terms of hardware, software, and humanware were derived. Conclusion: The plan to improve forest fire safety management was classified into three main categories and presented, and it should be embodied through further related research.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.38-42
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• 2012

Major industrial accidents such as fires, explosions and toxic releases have occurred in Ulsan, Yeosu petrochemical complex area every year. In this study, we analyzed the causes of the previous major accidents in order to provide reasonable measures for safety regulations and process safety management. Consequently, It is necessary to make constant revisions of safety regulations and to improve process safety management in other to prevent major industrial accidents in the petrochemical complex areas.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.68-73
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• 2011

The systems in Korea regarding manufacture, storage, transport and use of hazardous materials are regulated by the related laws and ordinances. The number of accident from hazardous materials has recently decreased but the size of accident has increased according to the hazardous substances are greatly consumed and delivered. The results of analysis showed that most of accidents are caused by human problems and occurred frequently at unauthorized facilities. It is suggested that workers should be trained more and the strict regulation on unauthorized facilities is needed to reduce the accidents caused by hazardous materials.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.72-77
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• 2017

In S. Korea, recently, building fire accidents of residential accommodations or recreational facilities have taken place more frequently than before. Among various building constructions, Multi-layered structure, such as office-residential complex, are mostly made in S. korea. $O_2$, $CO_2$, CO, $NO_x$, $SO_x$, and HCl, these gases has toxic hazard and harmful for human body. And it is predicted that different concentration of released gases from diesel pool fire with upper and lower layer. Therefore, this study reports the fire characteristics of Multi-layered structure by analyzing the fire behavior and concentration of combustion gases of a experimental compartment via real scale fire experiment, in order to predict risks and secure safety for similar fire accidents.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.294-300
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• 2017

The offshore installations and ships are the structures most likely to be exposed to hazards such as hydrocarbon fire and/or explosion. Developing proactive measures to prevent the escalation of such events thus requires detailed knowledge of the related phenomena and their consequences. $CO_2$ extinguishing systems are extensively used for fire accidents of on-and offshore installations because of outstanding performance and low cost. There is, however, the risk of carbon dioxide system which enumerates many of the fatalities by suffocation associated with industrial fire protection requirements. Therefore, the aim of this study is to perform the prediction of fire suppression characteristics of the carbon dioxide system in realistic enclosed compartment area of ships and propose $CO_2$ extinguish fire fighting system for preventing suffocation accidents during fire fighting. According to CFD calculations, it can be observed and assessed that various fire profiles with $CO_2$ and $O_2$ mole fraction in the target enclosed compartment area are applicable within the proposed system. Additionally, the design of fire safety system of ships and offshore installations can utilize ventilation system and/or layout arrangement through the proposed system.